SX19: The Day Before

What an interesting morning!  There was a big storm last night, the end result was a power outage at our main campus, one that lasted all the way just prior to 9:00 am.  The end result was this madhouse traffic nightmare scenario, where everyone who goes to the first service actually changed campuses for a morning, going instead to the "north campus."  In other words, everyone was at the "old church" again.  

Unfortunately for KidPak, the area where the kids were became "overflow" as this "old church" is nowhere near the size of our new main campus.  The capacity is much smaller.  We had set things up there initially, but soon after it was evident that the space was needed for the grown-ups.  So no KidPak for the first service.  Madison was there with Daddy, so he had her with the camera, out and about, taking pictures.  The above picture was one, and here's another one of Daddy and Mr. Craig, a fantastic KidPak volunteer from Australia.

Madison took this picture below as well, and it was like old times.  We were packed in back then too at the old church.  The last time we had a service here for the main congregation was in 2004, I think.

It was very unique being there again, a place of so many memories.  Mommy and Daddy got married on that stage there.  Each Sunday, we'd sit over towards the right, about four rows back.  We weren't front row sorts of people - we still aren't.

Meanwhile, Madison was off taking pictures all over.  There were some teenagers dressed in crazy costumes, promoting the upcoming Forward event, so those naturally drew Madison's attention.

As did this person in a Woopie Cushion costume....

...but when we heard the power was on at 9:00 am, a bunch of us from KidPak snuck back over to the main campus to prepare for service there.  We had a good day, with a Wisenheimer skit, a ninja race, a Tribes video, and a super short message by our youth pastor, the one the sixth graders will be seeing  as they transition out of KidPak.  Madison won't be transitioning any time soon - she wants to volunteer at KidPak, and hang around there another year or so.  We'll see how it goes as time goes by.

Afterwards, we had our volunteer meeting for KidPak, which you can see Lance leading above.  The room was packed.  This information is largely the same from year to year, but we have some important variations, and we also needed some help setting up with decorations, bags, and a lot of administrative things.  That being said, we got everyone lunch too!

We had baked ziti, garlic bread and salads.  You can see some of the KidPak actors above, chowing down, and getting ready for a big day of work.  All of these people above stayed here all day long, decorating, moving things, and helping out in any way that they could.  They were here for some very long hours, and of course will be here for some very long hours the rest of the week.  It's all for the kids.  These people are amazing.

Speaking of amazing, here is Madison, who was also helping out a lot today.  She put all the Summer Xtreme booklets in each chair for the kids tomorrow.  She did a lot of other things as well, balancing it out with some time spent on her computer occasionally.  But she rose to her feet when it was 4:00.  You see, at 4pm, her friend Jesse from taekwondo would be here with his great-grandmother.  They were late registrations, in fact just yesterday it was all confirmed.  But Jesse is coming to camp, and it's all taken care of.  He hasn't been to this church before, so Madison led the way and gave a guided tour of the place, while we also gave Jesse his t-shirt and his granny some information about what the week would entail, and the particulars about picking him up and dropping him off.  He's going to have an unforgettable week.

Here's someone else who is having her first Summer Xtreme.  Pastor Lance and Kate's new daughter, Jillian, was with us for a while today as well.  She's taking a little rest from all the work.

We left later today, all of us already a bit exhausted from a full day.  But there's a sense of peace about things, because we've done all we can do, including a huge prayer service for this week.  It's going to be a really good week.